Last week, I received a belated birthday present from CMB:

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I know you’re probably thinking this timely gift was given as a heart-felt-kick-in-the-pants to get back to blogging already, you bought the domain name for dog’s sake.  But to his credit, my beloved actually purchased this token 6-10 weeks ago, back when I had re-pledged my allegiance to maintaing this blog.  While usually really inconvenient, lengthy California DMV processing periods are actually a blessing in this case because here I am.

In case you’ve been wondering what the hell I’ve been doing since my last post so many weeks ago, I’ll give you a very brief synopsis- volunteering all of my free time away while squeezing in a workout here and there.  If it sounds like I’m whining and complaining, that’s because I am.  Indulge me for a paragraph or two.  I have somehow managed to so completely overextend myself that the only time left in my day for any personal endeavors is the 92 minutes designated to workout, shower and slap on some makeup.  Beyond that there is nothing beyond sleeping and eating, least of all the opportunity to let my creative juices flow free.

I made the choice to be a stay-at-home mother, mostly on purpose but kind of by accident, 14 years ago when my son was born.  I had planned on going back to work after 3 months of maternity leave but could not bear to leave my baby behind (he was, and still is, super-cute but I also suffered from postpartum depression).  Now a couple of cross-country moves and another child later, here I still am.  And its great and I’m very lucky to have the ability to make this choice and I really believe that its just as (if not more) important for me to be available to my children during the tween and teenage years as it was during infancy and preschool .  However,  now that my kids are school-aged and are gone for 6+ hours per day, I feel both obligated and compelled to agree to almost every volunteer opportunity presented to me that will benefit them either directly or indirectly in some way.   Volunteerism, giving back, paying it forward and philanthropy are all noble pursuits.  “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Gandhi  But when one has two children at two different schools and works the equivalent of a several full-time unpaid jobs ( I might be exaggerating slightly) she just might become resentful, overwhelmed and a little grumpy by spring of the school year.

I’ve made several important and potentially life-altering decisions since my last post.  Sometimes the best way to find yourself is not to drive yourself to the brink of insanity by completely distracting yourself in the service of others.  Sometimes its OK to respond with a sweet, “No, thank you” when confronted by a time leech. And finally, shameless self-promotion by way of vanity plates is always a great idea.

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